Home / Definitions / Software Environment

Software Environment

Vangie Beal
Last Updated July 22, 2022 8:43 am

What is a Software Environment?

A software environment is a collection of programs, libraries, and utilities that allow users to perform specific tasks. Software environments are often used by programmers to develop applications or run existing ones. A software environment for a particular application could include the operating system, the database system, specific development tools, or compilers.

What are examples of Software Environments?

The Java Development Kit (JDK) is one example of a software environment. The JDK contains tools for developing Java-based applications. The JDK also includes an integrated development environment (IDE), which allows developers to write code in one window while viewing output from another window. IDEs are designed with features such as syntax highlighting and auto-completion to make programming easier for developers. 

Other examples of software environments include MATLAB and RStudio, both of which provide advanced statistical analysis capabilities; Python 3, which provides a high-level programming language; and Ubuntu Studio, which is based on Linux but has additional multimedia editing capabilities built-in.

Interested in learning more? Read about The Top Java IDEs next.